MCSA NATIONAL NEWS, SEPTEMBER 2016
In this bulletin:
- 1-2-5…Climb – 1-16 October – 2016
- Contributions for 2016 Journal
- Agtertafelberg hut – new parking arrangements at Fizantakraal farm
- UIAA Member Federation profiles
- Mountain Club of Uganda – opportunity to climb Mt Batian in Kenya
- BANFF Mountain Film Festival 2016
- South African Medical Journal: Recognising and mitigating the risk of altitude-related illness
- South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON)
- Micha Stiller – Supertramp Award – Nepal – Feedback
- Facebook and web pages
- Section News
- Snippets
- Any newsworthy items
1) 1-2-5…CLIMB! – 1-16 OCTOBER 2016
Let’s go to the mountains to celebrate the MCSA’s 125th birthday!
Will ALL members please try to be in the mountains on 8 October (or any day between 1 and 16 October)? The aim is to reach at least 125 peaks or routes.
Register your climb/route (whether dog walk, first ascent or sport route; backyard, Timbuktu or Everest) on http://www.mcsamagalies.co.za/index.php/2014-08-19-20-47-44/latest-news/item/449-1-2-5-climb-08-08-2016 OR join a meet/route already registered.
If you have an MCSA 125-year anniversary Buff, please wear it and/or download the 125-year-logo (700kB) as an A4-banner from http://www.mcsamagalies.co.za/images/simplefilemanager/57e965787cdb11.65993956/MCSA125logo.pdf
and maybe even put the logo as your WhatsApp profile pic if you wish.
Happy 125th birthday, Mountain Club of South Africa!
(Feedback please to petrogrobler@telkomsa.net (Pictures max size 500kB))
Will all of you please go and like the post? https://www.facebook.com/MCSA125/
2) CONTRIBUTIONS FOR 2016 JOURNAL
This is a call for contributions for the 2016 Journal. These can be sent to the Editing Team to: jennyapaterson@gmail.com. Please refer to the Guidelines and Style Sheet on the national website before you submit any contribution: https://sites.google.com/a/mcsa.org.za/mcsa/home/journal As this will be a special edition, it being our 125th anniversary year, we will be including a bit about the history of the MCSA.
3) AGTERTAFELBERG HUT – NEW PARKING ARRANGEMENT at FIZANTAKRAAL FARM
The owners of Fizantakraal Farm, over which Club members walk to reach the Agtertafelberg Hut or Du Toit’s Peak, have offered the MCSA a “pay if you use” access arrangement, which will operate in addition to the existing walk-in arrangement from the Du Toit’s Kloof Hut or the N1 weighbridge parking areas. This comes into effect on Wednesday 14th September 2016.
MCSA members may now choose to drive from the N1 up to the Fizantakraal farmyard on the new tar road that the farm has recently built, saving a total of 6 kms of slogging up and down from the Du Toit’s Kloof Hut parking area below. We believe that cars parked up at Fizantakraal will also be safer from the break-ins that have occurred at the Du Toit’s Kloof Hut.
- The fee for the access and parking is R150 per car per day or night, or portion thereof.
- The parking facility will be limited to 5 cars
- The parking must be pre-booked, with vehicle registration number, and paid via the MSCA office, as is done for the Agtertafelberg Hut bookings. No refund for cancellation.
- Members may also book parking for their guests, who are accompanying them in terms of Club rules.
- The booking MSCA member must complete the log book on hand at the parking area, for their own vehicle, and for any other or guest’s vehicle/s.
- No drop-and-go is permitted at Fizantakraal
- The access and parking on Fizantakraal property is strictly at own risk.
- The Fizantakraal entrance is opposite the weighbridge and there are signs to the MCSA parking area.
- A penalty double charge will be levied if members park at Fizantakraal without pre-booking
- Please contact the MCSA office at bookings@mcsacapetown.co.za if you wish to book the parking at Fizantakraal, concurrent with making & paying your Hut booking.
- As before:
- The Fizantakraal farm gate will be open between 07h30 and 19h30 every day.
- Carry your MCSA membership card at all times.
- No bicycles or dogs are allowed under any circumstances.
- Stay on the designated trails across the Fizantakraal farm property.
4) UIAA MEMBER FEDERATION PROFILES
The UIAA has planned a new series of articles for their monthly newsletter. The idea is to profile a different UIAA member federation each month and they are starting with the MCSA as we are celebrating a significant milestone. The MCSA profile can be viewed on the following link: http://www.theuiaa.org/news-441-Profile-The-Mountain-Club-of-South-Africa.html
5) MOUNTAIN CLUB OF UGANDA – OPORTUNITY TO CLIMB MT BATIAN IN KENYA
The Mountain Club of Uganda (MCU) are organising a trip to climb Batian on Mt Kenya in March 2017. If you wish to climb you will need to bring a climbing partner and gear. To join the trip contact Matt Battini: matt.battani@gmail.com
6) BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL – 2016
The Banff Mountain Film World Tour 2016 is screening in South Africa from the 21St October to the 29th October 2016. Presented by Cape Union Mart, The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour 2016 showcases the efforts and talents of the world’s finest mountain filmmakers. Every year the Banff Centre in Canada receives hundreds of hopeful entries. These are narrowed down until only the very best films on Mountain Culture remain. In 1986, the Banff Centre began an outreach programme to bring the tour to other communities across the world… and so the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour was born. 20 years later, in 2006, Cape Union Mart first brought the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour to South Africa, to Cape Town. 2014 heralds the ninth year of Cape Union Mart’s partnership with the tour The tour enables you to experience the adventure of climbing, base jumping, alpine skiing, kayaking, mountain expeditions, remote cultures, and the world’s last great wild places – all brought to life on the big screen. http://www.climbing.co.za/2016/09/banff-mountain-film-festival-world-tour-2016-trailer
7) SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL JOURNAL: RECOGNISING AND MITIGATING THE RISK OF ALTITUDE-RELATED ILLNESS
‘The recent tragic and widely publicised death of South African (SA) celebrity Gugu Zulu on Mount Kilimanjaro has drawn significant public interest and speculation about the risks of high-altitude trekking and climbing. It has also demonstrated numerous myths and misconceptions with regard to safe high-altitude ascents among not only the lay public, but also medical professionals.’ Read the complete article at: http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/view/11389
8) SOUTH AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATION NETWORK (SAEON)
Saeon is a comprehensive, sustained, coordinated and responsive South African environmental observation network that delivers long-term reliable data for scientific research and informs decision making; for a knowledge society and improved quality of life.
http://www.saeon.ac.za/enewsletter/archives/2016/august2016/doc09
http://www.saeon.ac.za/enewsletter/archives/2016/august2016/doc11
http://www.saeon.ac.za/enewsletter/archives/2016/august2016/doc03
http://www.saeon.ac.za/enewsletter
9) MICHA STILLER – SUPERTRAMP AWARD – NEPAL – FEEDBACK
In the first week I had detours, days without battery on my cellphone, a full day of rain, my first snow, a horrible section of road which had collapsed under an infamous Himalayan landslide which I had to cross twice, lack of communication, lack of food, and a very sore and tired body, and this was the easiest of the three weeks.
For the full article of Micha’s experiences in Nepal: https://sites.google.com/a/mcsa.org.za/mcsa/home/supertramp%202016%20report%20by%20Micha%20Stiller.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
10) FACEBOOK AND WEB PAGES
National: https://www.facebook.com/Mountain-Club-of-South-Africa-181163071916739/
MCSA Search and Rescue Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MCSASAR
Cape Town: https://www.facebook.com/MountainClubOfSouthAfricaCT
EP: www.facebook.com/MCSAEPSection
Free State: https://www.facebook.com/MCSAFS
Hottentotsholland: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mountain-Club-of-South-Africa-Hottentots-Holland-Section/385143928232942
Johannesburg: https://www.facebook.com/groups/141752442885/
KZN: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_185119868204602
Magaliesberg: https://sites.google.com/site/mcsamagaliesberg
Magaliesberg: www.mcsamagalies.co.za
Namibia: http://www.mcnam.org/
Paarl/Wellington: https://www.facebook.com/PaarlWellingtonMCSA
South Cape: https://mcsasc.wordpress.com/
Stellenbosch: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_132651793466552
Tygerberg: https://www.facebook.com/bksa.tygerberg and http://sites.google.com/site/bksatygerberg
Worcester: http://www.mcsawor.co.za
https://www.facebook.com/mcsawor
Links for all sections’ web pages are on the national web page.
11) SECTION NEWS
KZN SECTION: The latest club newsletter is up on the website. It can be viewed at: https://goo.gl/5a6Mhv
CT SECTION: The Cape Town Section has a new website. See www.mcsacapetown.co.za.
12) SNIPPETS
12.1) LOS SUPERTRAMP BLOG
https://lossupertramps.co.za/ Blog tracking the build-up to our expedition to Mexico.
12.2) MANICARE AND THE MANICA HIGHLANDS INITIATIVE
The Manica Highlands, an 8200 km2 trans-boundary mountain range situated on the Zimbabwe–Mozambique border, southern Africa, represents (on a small scale) the challenges facing sustainable development in both southern and eastern African mountains. These include the need for the sustainable provision of public goods and services, conservation of a unique evolutionary heritage, reducing poverty and climate change risks, political and economic stability, and effective trans-boundary policy management.
Bridget Schuil will be launching an enterprise called ManiCare and using crowd-funding sites to raise awareness – and hopefully finances – towards practical conservation work and research in the Manica Highlands. She is looking for photos, papers, soft data etc. that she can use to write popular articles for magazines, create a website, and do general PR work for the MHI to raise awareness. If you would like to be involved in this, or have pics etc. to share, please contact her on bridget.schuil@gmail.com.
Also contact Dr Ralph Clark, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, for more information on the Manica Highlands Initiative.
Cell: +27 (0)72 439 8981
vincentralph.clark@gmail.com
http://www.blogs-mri.org/the-challenges-and-joys-of-hosting-the-worlds-longest-erosional-orographic-entity-southern-africas-great-escarpment/
http://mri.scnatweb.ch/en/mri-africa-news/2305-the-great-escarpment-research-programme
12.3) AFROMONT-MT KILIMANJARO MOUNTAIN RESEARCH MEETING 22-26 FEBRUARY 2017
Please diarise the above dates for the 2017 AfroMont-Mt Kilimanjaro African Mountain Research meeting, hosted by the Mt Kili research programme based at Moshi. http://mri.scnatweb.ch/en/networks/mri-africa
12.4) WINGS OF KILIMANJARO 2016 – VIDEO
http://theadventureblog.blogspot.co.za/
Newsworthy items for inclusion in MCSA National News can be sent to the Editor, Bridget Carrick: bridget.carrick7@gmail.com
QUOTE
“Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambition to achieve, they are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.” (Anatoli Boukreev)
“explore – discover – connect – protect”
“verken – ontdek – ontmoet – bewaar”